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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 02 Hansard (Wednesday, 3 March 2004) . . Page.. 672 ..

It is the case that one effective response to the acknowledged problem raised by Ms Dundas is that police perhaps should not be called on quite so often to provide a role basically of transportation. Police are not necessarily the major agency in this matter. But where these pick-ups occur, the issue of dignity and the stigma that may be seen to be associated with police involvement in mental health transportation and other issues is a source of some concern and needs to be managed in a sensible way.

A recent New South Wales select committee report recommended the development of a mental health patient transportation service to avoid the problem we have been discussing. I am not suggesting that a jurisdiction the size of the ACT could provide this service. It simply makes the point that transportation is not always a matter that needs to be passed to the police.

Further, the transportation of people suffering a mental illness really is part of a greater issue involving the care and custody of these people. It is currently the subject of an interdepartmental committee which will be reporting to the Chief Minister. ACT Policing is participating in that process. I would suggest that this is a matter that they could well be considering and I think that that is where the consideration, if it is to happen, should occur.

On that basis, I am not intending to proceed with the amendment that I had circulated and I will support the amendments to be proposed by Mr Smyth.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (4.17): I seek leave to move together the amendments circulated in my name.

Leave granted.

MR SMYTH: I move:

(1) After the word “require”, insert “where operationally possible, and without putting the mentally ill person or the community at further risk,”; and

(2) Omit “wherever possible”.

I thank Ms Dundas for raising this issue. It is certainly an issue that has been at the forefront of my mind for a long time. I acknowledge the long-term interest and commitment of Ms Tucker to mental health issues in the ACT and the interest that Ms Dundas has shown since her arrival in this place.

The other day there was a Schizophrenia Fellowship meeting in an Assembly room and we heard a large number of stories about the treatment of those with mental illness in the ACT. Some of the stories relayed to the meeting concerned how we deal with the police. I came away with a sense that people thought things were getting better, that the police were trying much harder in the approach they took to dealing with somebody with a mental illness, but that a whole lot of extra work needed to be done. I think the police would acknowledge that the system they have is not perfect, simply because, as Mr Wood, points out they should not necessarily be the primary response of a community to somebody affected by mental illness who is having an episode.

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